53rd All Japan Aikido Demonstration (2015)

The 53rd edition of the All Japan Aikido Demonstration took place on the 23rd of May at the Nippon Budokan. As always, I shot a small number of videos in order to document the event. These are presented below. Please note that being a one-man operation, I was not able to film every single demonstration as several of them take place simultaneously. Also, I always tended to privilege shooting the tatami that offered me the best view and I may have missed the demonstrations of teachers I like because they took place too far from where I was seating.

Luckily, I was well equipped this year with my Canon 6D and my Tamron 70-300 lens, which constitutes a huge upgrade in quality compared to the videos I have been shooting so far. I hope that you will like them. In spite oif the absence of two of my favorite teachers, namely Miyamoto Sensei and Osawa Sensei, I thought that this was a pretty good year, with very dynamic demonstrations. Enjoy!

Some highlights of the 53rd All Japan Aikido Demonstration

For more videos, make sure to pay a visit to Seido’s YouTube channel as they have shot quite a few of them as well.

A resident of Japan for nearly a decade, Guillaume Erard trains at the Aikikai Hombu Dojo, where he received the 5th Dan from Aikido Doshu Moriteru Ueshiba. He also holds a 3rd Dan in Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu, the secretive art that Morihei Ueshiba learned from Sokaku Takeda. Erard is Deputy Secretary of International Affairs of the Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu Shikoku Headquarters. He is also passionate about science and education and holds a PhD in Molecular Biology.